A Comprehensive Review of 5G Security Architecture and Quantum-Safe Communication Using Quantum Key Distribution and Post-Quantum Algorithms

Trends in Quantum Key Distribution Technologies: A Systematic Review of Protocols, Network Architectures, and Deployment Challenges

The emergence of the Quantum computing technologies is imposing greater threats on the existing cryptographic algorithms that rely heavily on the mathematical problems, creating a growing demand for quantum safe Communication. Even though Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) is a theoretically proven secure key exchange method against quantum attacks, it also faces several deployment challenges like scalability, cost, and interoperability limitations. A systematic review was conducted to examine the recent advancements in QKD technologies by analyzing the peer reviewed studies Published between 2021 to 2025 and classified according to protocol design, network architecture and deployment readiness. The review analyzed articles for a Comparison of the recent advancements in the field of Twin Field QKD, Continuous Variable QKD, Hybrid classical quantum networks and long-distance secure communication systems. Furthermore, the review also examined the Conjunction of QKD with the emerging security applications of 5G Networks, IOT environments, edge computing, fog Computing and Multimedia security systems. Despite of the significant technological advancements, the deployment of QKD is still under the constraints of scalability, lower key generation rates, cost of deployment, Synchronization issues, stability complexities, interoperability problems and standardization issues. Through a comprehensive evaluation of QKD protocols and network architectures, this study highlights the critical research gaps and provides future directions for the practical deployment of the QKD enabled secure communication networks.

QuantumShield-IoT: A Quantum-Resilient Hybrid Framework for Secure Data Transmission Using Quantum Key Distribution, Lightweight Cryptography and Blockchain Technology

The proposed Quantum Shield-IoT is a quantum-resilient hybrid security framework that combines the Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) protocol of BB84 with ASCON lightweight authenticated encryption, blockchain security, and cloud computing to ensure secure end-to-end data transmission in IoT.

A Comprehensive Review of Post-Quantum Cryptography and Its Implementation Challenges

Lightweight Post Quantum Homomorphic Encryption for Secure Network Traffic Intrusion detection

These quantum computing technologies are a serious risk for existing “Cryptographic Algorithms, corresponding “RSA, ECC, and Diffie-Hellman”. The Quantum Algorithm “Shor's can break classical” public-key encryption systems effectively and now there is a momentous security concern of cloud computing, IoT systems, and healthcare networks, as well as the future 6G communication systems. In response to the above difficulties, researchers have suggested two new methods of privacy-preserving encrypted computation, namely: “Post-Quantum Cryptography (PQC) and Fully Homomorphic Encryption (FHE)". But the current “Post-Quantum Homomorphic Encryption (PQHE)” solutions have high computational complexity, expanded ciphertext size, latency, and are not widely deployed in cybersecurity applications. This research aims to provide a lightweight Post-Quantum Homomorphic Encryption framework for secure network traffic analysis with the intrusion detection dataset from CICIDs 2018. The proposed framework combines the lattice-based PQHE concepts, “Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and K-Means cluster to envision encrypted traffic and secure intrusion analysis. Data preprocessing, feature standardization, dimensionality reduction, encrypted traffic representation, clustering analysis and graphical visualization are parts of the experimental methodology. To address the key challenges, by using two major approaches for privacy-preserving encrypted computation have been proposed: “Post-Quantum Cryptography (PQC) and Fully Homomorphic Encryption (FHE)”. The current Post-Quantum Homomorphic Encryption (PQHE) systems, on the contrary, are complicated, costly in the length of the ciphertext, slow and not widely used in terms of cybersecurity. To protect network traffic analysis a lightweight Post-Quantum Homomorphic Encryption framework is proposed in this research to achieve network security using intrusion detection data set CICIDS2018.

The Role of Quantum-Safe Cryptography in Next-Generation Security

Quantum computing offers major computational advances but threatens modern public-key cryptography. Classical algorithms such as RSA, Diffie–Hellman (DH), and Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC) are vulnerable to quantum attacks, particularly Shor’s algorithm. As large-scale quantum capabilities emerge, post-quantum cryptography (PQC) has become essential to ensure future data confidentiality, integrity, and authentication. This paper discusses the need to replace classical cryptography, explores quantum-safe solutions, and examines challenges in large-scale migration. PQC is critical across government, critical infrastructure, finance, healthcare, telecommunications, IoT, autonomous vehicles, and 6G networks. A key concern is “harvest-now, decrypt-later” attacks, where encrypted data is stored today for future quantum decryption. The study analyzes classical cryptographic vulnerabilities and reviews major PQC families: lattice-based, hash-based, code-based, multivariate-based, and isogeny-based schemes, highlighting the ongoing NIST standardization efforts. It proposes a migration framework including quantum-readiness assessment, algorithm selection, hybrid implementation, and performance evaluation. Results show that although PQC introduces higher computational complexity, optimized implementations can support real-time applications with reasonable overhead. Among PQC approaches, lattice-based schemes appear most mature and balanced in terms of security and key size. The paper concludes that quantum-safe cryptography is a necessary evolution requiring continuous monitoring, adaptable systems, and alignment with emerging standards.

Performance Evaluation of Standardized and Candidate Post-Quantum Algorithms on Resource-Constrained Virtualized IoT

Quantum computing poses a significant threat to Internet of Things (IoT) communications that rely on classical cryptographic algorithms such as RSA, Diffie–Hellman, and Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC). These algorithms are vulnerable to Shor’s algorithm, making long-term data security uncertain, particularly for IoT devices with extended operational lifespans. Post-quantum cryptographic (PQC) algorithms offer resistance to quantum attacks; however, their deployment on resource-constrained IoT devices remains challenging due to limitations in processing power, memory, and energy consumption. This study benchmarks seven Key Encapsulation Mechanisms (KEMs) ML-KEM, Kyber, NTRU, BIKE, Classic McEliece, FrodoKEM, and sntrup761 across key generation, encapsulation, and decapsulation operations. Experiments were conducted using the liboqs library in a virtualized Linux environment running WSL2 to simulate constrained computing conditions. Results revealed substantial performance differences among the algorithms. ML-KEM-512 achieved the best overall performance, completing all operations in under 14 µs, while Kyber-512 showed similar efficiency. NTRU provided the fastest encapsulation but incurred significantly higher key-generation costs. BIKE, FrodoKEM, and Classic McEliece exhibited execution times unsuitable for real-time IoT applications. Overall, lattice-based schemes, particularly ML-KEM and Kyber, emerged as the most practical PQC solutions for resource-constrained IoT environments. The findings also demonstrate the usefulness of virtualized benchmarking for deployment planning.